(KNSI) – Autumn is approaching, and with it comes visits to pumpkin patches and apple orchards around Central Minnesota. Since June, however, almost the entire state has experienced severe, extreme or even exceptional drought conditions, impacting crops, animals and bodies of water. Even though regional conditions have improved over the past two weeks, Central Minnesota apple orchards and pumpkin patches are seeing the drought’s effects in their fall harvests.
Todd and Cherie Beumer own Collegeville Orchards. They opened up Labor Day weekend and plan on being open daily until the end of October. Through the summer, Todd Beumer says it was a struggle keeping their plants watered.
“We don’t have the capacity to water the entire orchard; we were just watering new trees that we planted last spring,” Beumer said. “The established, in general, the apples seem to be a little bit smaller just because of the drought, and they seem to be ripening a little bit quicker than other years, on some of the varieties.
“These recent rains are going to help some of the later apples get some size to them,” he continued. “But the early apples and the apples we’re starting to harvest right now are a little bit smaller yet.”
As for Collegeville Orchard’s pumpkin patch, Beumer said keeping enough water on those plants was tough from day one.
“Going way back to June, the drought started so early, just trying to keep enough water on them to get the seeds germinated,” he said. “And then once they were up, keeping enough moisture in the ground so that they didn’t burn up with the dry and the heat.”
While the pumpkins are growing to be good sizes, Beumer says they’re seeing fewer pumpkins per acre.
“Instead of having four or five per vine, we might have two or three per vine.”
Despite having fewer pumpkins, Beumer says there still should be plenty for visitors to choose from this fall. With some added costs this year associated with more frequent watering, the price might go up a bit on the smaller pumpkins.
“A lot of our irrigation is run by a gas pump,” he said. “Between gas and electric, we’ve got a lot more invested in that, just water the fields that we have and everything.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has also continued to impact Minnesotans’ daily lives. At the orchard, Beumer said the pandemic won’t change much as far as operations go, though they will still host multiple evenings of live music through the fall just like in 2020, when event capacity restrictions prompted the orchard to change course from its usual fall festival.
“Everything is kind of back to normal, as far as the wagon rides and the petting zoo and everything like that.”
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